Been obsessed with Japanese music lately. In another life I'm sure I was a kabuki singer. I've always loved that style. One thing I've learned is that "timing" in Japanese music is done not by counts, but by breathing. That's why is sounds out of time by people who are not familiar with it. Think I'm going to dig pretty deep into Enka, a rather melodramatic form of popular music from the 1950s through the 1970s. Examples! OK back to studying
Takashi Hosokawa
Meiko Kaji
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Saturday, September 3, 2011
reaccuring dream
Maybe in addition to the other things I write about on here I should also use it as a dream journal? I have pretty vivid dreams. In a dream last night I had a daughter. This is a fairly regular theme. Normally they have dark-red and curly hair. They are also always daughters. I think these are strange concepts to reoccur. The daughters-only thing makes sense - it's God's revenge for all the terrible things I've thought, did or wanted to do to other men's daughters over the years. The curly red hair doesn't. I personally probably do not possess the genes necessary to produce red-haired children, and am not likely to reproduce with a woman who does either. So it's odd. Also, it's not ginger-red, but a dark-red. So anyway, me and my daughter - who is a newborn in this dream - and my whole family are taking an old wooden boat to the Arctic. We've decided to move there. There are shark monsters looking for us and we are trying to be quiet. At one point the sharks try to board out ship - covered in melting snow - but can't find us because we're locked in the hibernation chambers in a secret part of the ship. I'm on lookout for the sharks, and when they leave I go down to the chamber, pick up my daughter . . . and she throws up on me! The dream gets hazy from there...
Thursday, July 14, 2011
long division
A few minutes ago I had a conversation about the evolution of my musical tastes. This "equation" just came to mind. Undoubedly there's a lot in the middle, but I tried to hit he big songs, the songs I remember liking in particular and in the style I mainly listened to.
[(early 1980s: Hank Williams - I Saw the Light) + (late 1980s: Beach Boys - Surfin' USA) + (early 1990s: Public Enemy - Can't Truss It) + (mid 1990's: Smashing Pumpkins - Today) + (mid-late 1990s: Fugazi - Bed for the Scraping) + (very late 1990s/early 2000s: ATB 9pm - Till I Come) + (mid 1990s/early-mid-late 2000s/always: Radiohead - 2 + 2 = 5) + (mid-late-2000s: Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line) + (early 2010s: Flying Lotus - Do the Astral Plane) = Me
[(early 1980s: Hank Williams - I Saw the Light) + (late 1980s: Beach Boys - Surfin' USA) + (early 1990s: Public Enemy - Can't Truss It) + (mid 1990's: Smashing Pumpkins - Today) + (mid-late 1990s: Fugazi - Bed for the Scraping) + (very late 1990s/early 2000s: ATB 9pm - Till I Come) + (mid 1990s/early-mid-late 2000s/always: Radiohead - 2 + 2 = 5) + (mid-late-2000s: Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line) + (early 2010s: Flying Lotus - Do the Astral Plane) = Me
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
i forgot
whilst posting the best few albums I've discovered in the last semester I somehow forgot two, one serious and the other silly.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Dare I say she's the female Thom Yorke. Ms. Harvey's talent is pretty amazing. It's actually the first "guitar album" I've liked in a long while. I really like this album too. No, I love it. Every song on this album is stellar, as is the writing, lyrics, and arrangements. Speaking of lyrics, there are a few weirdly patriotic songs on here. It's almost uncomfortable? This I learned from referencing one of her lyrics: the word "corn" doesn't always refer to the yellow stuff also called maize. The term is generic for whatever staple crop comes from a certain area. So if they grow barley in Essex and rye in Northumberland, barley and rye are the "corn" from those areas, respectively. Neat. Taking your problems to the UN sometimes works....
La Roux - La Roux
Mainly a cheesy synth-pop album. Kinda "lesbianic" her schtick is gender ambiguity. Just good old fashioned major key radio friendly fare. That's OK sometimes. I discovered her because a DJ I like - Boy 8-bit - remixed one of her songs. Apparently she's fairly popular because I've heard her single a few times here and there. Bulletproof... I wish I was.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Dare I say she's the female Thom Yorke. Ms. Harvey's talent is pretty amazing. It's actually the first "guitar album" I've liked in a long while. I really like this album too. No, I love it. Every song on this album is stellar, as is the writing, lyrics, and arrangements. Speaking of lyrics, there are a few weirdly patriotic songs on here. It's almost uncomfortable? This I learned from referencing one of her lyrics: the word "corn" doesn't always refer to the yellow stuff also called maize. The term is generic for whatever staple crop comes from a certain area. So if they grow barley in Essex and rye in Northumberland, barley and rye are the "corn" from those areas, respectively. Neat. Taking your problems to the UN sometimes works....
La Roux - La Roux
Mainly a cheesy synth-pop album. Kinda "lesbianic" her schtick is gender ambiguity. Just good old fashioned major key radio friendly fare. That's OK sometimes. I discovered her because a DJ I like - Boy 8-bit - remixed one of her songs. Apparently she's fairly popular because I've heard her single a few times here and there. Bulletproof... I wish I was.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
dollar bills
I wish I was rich. That way I could do lots of awesome things, help people and make them happy. This is the fantasy stuck in my head as I work right now.
Monday, May 30, 2011
something ephemeral
I have a summer job interview with Knowledge Ecology International - a DC based NGO that amongst other things tries to ensure drugs for developing nations. Cross your fingers for me please. That they wanted to talk to me and setting up the interview was established in about 10 hours. This time last night I had no idea they were interested. I fly back to Florida on Wednesday so I had to do it quick. Just got into DC about an hour ago. Four hour drive just for an interview!
So this post is "ephemeral" because it's about music - the blips and beeps of which are necessarily momentary. These are the best new albums I discovered just this semester. After writing this I discovered that all of them are electronic albums! I didn't mean to do that intentionally.... I guess I just listen to a lot of it.
Charanjit Singh: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat. Many thanks to my former roommate and master DJ King Anne for recommending me this one. It's the best album I've heard not just this semester, but all year. It came out in 1982, but was mostly ignored until it was reissued a couple of years ago. All experimental electronic, each song is in a different mode of Indian Classical music. One of the albums I listened to on the drive up here today. Here's an example.
Radiohead: King of Limbs. Pip, pip, pip. What to say about this album? I still don't really know what I think about it. I've listened to it loads of times. It seems too short. But it's not really. Only 5 minutes shorter than most of their other albums. It's like it's a work in project... I dunno. But I really can't wait to see them in concert again. Here's one of the songs from the single that just came out a few weeks ago. Are they part of the album? I just don't know. Maybe they are tree limbs too.
Gold Panda: Lucky Shiner. An electronic musician out of England (actually all of them except the first are!) he came onto the scene last year. His schtick is old Indian and Japanese records that he dices and mixes. This is my favourite song on the album.
Four Tet: There is Love in You. Another British electronic artist. Four Tet's been out for a while. This is his newest record. I didn't think any of the particular songs was brilliant, but it's a good whole album and mixes really well with DJ sets. His Essential Mix last year may be the best one I've heard. Here's the last track on the album.
James Blake: James Blake. This may be the best new album of the year (out of England of course). In articles about him he's described as a "wunderkind" because he's so young yet making such great music. It's R&B dub-step if such a thing exists. The only problem with his music is that you can't really passivly listen to it. You need to pay attention. This is not the song I wanted to post - unfortunately it's not available online to listen.
Sun Glitters: Everything Could Be Fine. I literally discovered this just a couple of weeks ago. It'll easily become one of my most listened to albums of next semester. It's pretty bloody underground. It also just came out a couple of weeks ago. There's not a whole lot of information about it or the artist who made it. It sounds an awful lot like Burial. I would not be surprised in the least if it actually turn out to be Burial under a different name. Whoever it is it's known that he's out of the UK (I said they all were!). Here's a pretty tune.
So this post is "ephemeral" because it's about music - the blips and beeps of which are necessarily momentary. These are the best new albums I discovered just this semester. After writing this I discovered that all of them are electronic albums! I didn't mean to do that intentionally.... I guess I just listen to a lot of it.
Charanjit Singh: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat. Many thanks to my former roommate and master DJ King Anne for recommending me this one. It's the best album I've heard not just this semester, but all year. It came out in 1982, but was mostly ignored until it was reissued a couple of years ago. All experimental electronic, each song is in a different mode of Indian Classical music. One of the albums I listened to on the drive up here today. Here's an example.
Radiohead: King of Limbs. Pip, pip, pip. What to say about this album? I still don't really know what I think about it. I've listened to it loads of times. It seems too short. But it's not really. Only 5 minutes shorter than most of their other albums. It's like it's a work in project... I dunno. But I really can't wait to see them in concert again. Here's one of the songs from the single that just came out a few weeks ago. Are they part of the album? I just don't know. Maybe they are tree limbs too.
Gold Panda: Lucky Shiner. An electronic musician out of England (actually all of them except the first are!) he came onto the scene last year. His schtick is old Indian and Japanese records that he dices and mixes. This is my favourite song on the album.
Four Tet: There is Love in You. Another British electronic artist. Four Tet's been out for a while. This is his newest record. I didn't think any of the particular songs was brilliant, but it's a good whole album and mixes really well with DJ sets. His Essential Mix last year may be the best one I've heard. Here's the last track on the album.
James Blake: James Blake. This may be the best new album of the year (out of England of course). In articles about him he's described as a "wunderkind" because he's so young yet making such great music. It's R&B dub-step if such a thing exists. The only problem with his music is that you can't really passivly listen to it. You need to pay attention. This is not the song I wanted to post - unfortunately it's not available online to listen.
Sun Glitters: Everything Could Be Fine. I literally discovered this just a couple of weeks ago. It'll easily become one of my most listened to albums of next semester. It's pretty bloody underground. It also just came out a couple of weeks ago. There's not a whole lot of information about it or the artist who made it. It sounds an awful lot like Burial. I would not be surprised in the least if it actually turn out to be Burial under a different name. Whoever it is it's known that he's out of the UK (I said they all were!). Here's a pretty tune.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
holidays
The semester is over. It's been the most stressful and emotionally taxing one I've experienced in a while. Maybe ever. Don't know how'd I'd have made it without the lovely people who take the time out to say nice things to me. At least two weeks to do as much as nothing or things as I'd like.
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